Crunch time for navy
Little time left to push for move of HMAS Cairns
LEICHHARDT MP Warren Entsch is running out of time to get a senior Defence leader to Cairns to thrash out a proposal to move HMAS Cairns.
Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group deputy secretary Kim Gillis is due to retire in September after a long career overseeing Defence procurement contracts.
Mr Entsch still hoped to get the high-level bureaucrat to the Far North after his last scheduled visit in April was cancelled following a last-minute summons to Washington. He wanted to gain traction in plans to move the city’s navy base to Admiralty Island and establish a common-user mar- ine maintenance facility somewhere in the precinct.
Mr Entsch said the projects were nothing new to the State Government, and shared two maps created by Ports North showing how Admiralty Island could be used for freeing up wharf land.
“It’s their plan, and I think it’s brilliant,” he said.
“There’s more than enough room to put the fuel farm too.
“I understand that if there is a relocation of the fuel farm, it won’t need anywhere near what it’s got now – it can be significantly condensed.
“There’s no reason why we couldn’t set up over there and have a discharge point for fuel tankers (and pipe it across Trinity Inlet).”
Mr Entsch was not opposed to a bid from Sea Swift to shift private freight operations to the island but said the requirement for rail access could blow out costs.
His preference was for a vehicle bridge.
“Using a small portion of it as a military base means you don’t need a railway line to be built over,” he said.
“Then you can extend into the wharf area you would pick up on the mainland.”
Defence has committed to spending $750 million in Cairns over the next decade.
Mr Entsch said it made sense to move the base instead of trying to upgrade its current heavily-constricted lodgings.
Cairns MP Michael Healy said he would take any proposal with meat on its bones to the State Government. “For the past 20 years, I’ve been hearing Warren talk about getting huge navy contracts,” he said.
“We are happy to have that discussion but we need some paperwork, a letter indicating intentions, guidelines, an action plan – at the moment we just have one person talking.” editorial@cairnspost.com.au facebook.com/TheCairnsPost www.cairnspost.com.au twitter.com/TheCairnsPost